Not Fictional Anymore
by Luna daughter of Hecate
Summary: Look, I'd always wanted to be a half-blood. Everyone does. Magic powers, supreme strength, the whole she-bang. You probably think this is going to be- well- fiction. But it isn't. This is real life. It's a recount of my life, starting from October 2nd, 2012. Percy gave me permission to publish this, to warn you. All of you. Something is coming. Something big.
1. Chapter 1

**A note from Lavender:**

**Look, I'd ****_always_**** wanted to be a half-blood.**

**Now, I know what you're thinking. ****_Everyone_**** does. Magic powers, supreme strength, the whole she-bang.**

**You probably think this is going to be some stupid, badly written fanfiction that's- well- fiction. But it isn't. This is real life. It's a recount of my life, starting from October 2nd, 2012.**

**Percy gave me permission to publish this, to warn you. All of you. **

**Something is coming. Something big.**

Lavender turned the page of _Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena_. It was so gripping, she almost didn't react when "Final call for 3:30 flight to New York City- Air Canada!" issued from the speakers above her head.

She was in Vancouver Airport. She sat in a scratchy blue seat right next to her gate. Headed to New York City- her parents had told her that her long-lost aunt Annie lived there- she was going alone, as her mother 'wasn't feeling well'.

After a few moments, Lavender sighed and closed the book, slipping in her Percy Jackson-themed bookmark.

Lavender was obsessed with Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus. She had a Tumblr blog dedicated to it, she made cakes for all the characters when it was their birthdays, and she wrote many, many fanfictions about them- she considered herself pretty good at writing. She had posters on her walls of Burdge-Bug's amazing fanarts, she even drew fanarts herself (even if they were terrible), she had an official Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, and her parents' car had an SPQR bumper sticker. She was also planning to go to the Empire State Building in NYC to ask to go to the 600th floor. So, yeah, she was an obsessed fangirl. Whatever.

Lavender entered the plane, worried that she would have to sit next to a crazy old man- or worse, a crying baby. She thanked her lucky stars that she was sitting in a window seat. She loved looking out at the clouds.

She found that the two seats in her section were unoccupied. She tied her frizzy, long brown hair into a ponytail and stared at the empty runways.

Finally a bunch of people rushed into her area. Two sat next to her and three settled into in the row behind her. She turned to look at them- _hopefully they won't be mothers with little kids_, Lavender thought.

They were actually about 18 or 19. She sighed in relief.

The guy next to her had jet-black hair. _Probably dyed_, Lander thought. He was wearing a plain green t-shirt and dark jeans. He was facing his friend beside him, so he couldn't see his face. His friend was a girl, and she had blonde hair- Lavender could see that.

The guy turned to face her, and she saw that his eyes were green- sea green. Her heart started to beat ferociously.

_OH MY GODS. It- it _can't_ be. No, lots of people have black hair and green eyes. Percy is fictional!_ she reminded herself.

The girl next to him was definitely blonde. Her gray eyes were distracted, and she was fiddling with the zipper on her bright yellow bag._ Um, sounds familiar? Blonde, gray eyes..._ Lavender could have convinced herself that it wasn't Annabeth- if it wasn't for the owl-shaped earrings.

Her hand went to her mouth. _No, no way, not possible_, the logical part of her brain screamed.

She peered at the three people behind her.

It was two guys and a girl. One of them was Latino with curly black hair and a crazy smile. He was the mirror image of Leo Valdez. He was her favorite character!

The girl was dark-skinned, with cocoa colored hair and strange golden eyes. _Um... Hazel? _She was wearing a black blouse with a purple skirt. _Still showing Roman pride, I see. _

The other guy was huge. He was easily 6 foot 7, or taller. He was burly and Asian, and his dimpled smile was cheery. His Vancouver Winter Olympics hoodie- _Canada pride! _- was a little small. _Frank, anyone?_

"Um, hello?" the guy next to her- the one who looked like Percy- asked, waving his hand in front of her face, snapping her back to the real world. "Are you OK? You look kind of worried."

Lavender forced herself to be calm. There were two other options that didn't involve fictional characters being real.

"Am I- am I being Punk'd?" she whispered. The Annabeth doppelgänger frowned, then looked as if she partially understood.

"Uh, no.." 'Percy' said, confused.

"Then are you really, really good cosplayers?"

"What the Hade- I mean, what the heck are cosplayers?"

_Shoot. There's no other logical explanation for this!_

"What's going on, Perce?" 'Leo' half-shouted from behind them. "Is there something wrong?"

"OK, so what's your name?" 'Percy' asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Er.. it doesn't matter..." Lavender mumbled. She pulled out _The Mark of Athena_ from her backpack and buried her face in it.

The others shrugged and went back to talking about regular things- if they had looked closer at the cover of her book, they would have know what her problem was.

_Wait a second.. _

Lavender was almost at the end of the book. The end of Chapter 51, to be exact.

Her brain couldn't process what she was seeing. Annabeth was falling towards the pit to Tartarus. Percy caught her. _Well, Percy will pull her up, right? Right?_

He couldn't pull her up. The pull was too strong.

_No, no, no!_

They were going to meet Nico on 'the other side'?

**_'"As long as we're together," she said.'_**

_No, no, no, no, no, this isn't happening_. Lavender's hand went to her mouth as he tried to keep in a scream of anguish. Not Percabeth! Anything but them!

**_'together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness.'_**

"No! This isn't supposed to- what the hell, Rick Riordan?" Lavender found herself saying out loud.

'Percy' and 'Annabeth' turned to stare at her.

"Rick Riordan, did you say?"

"Well, yeah! I'm kind of obsessed with his books! It's perfectly normal!" Lavender defended herself.

"Oh, I get it," Percy said. "That's- oh.. that's why you were so shocked to see us. You were right, of course."

"This doesn't happen very much, as demigods usually don't like reading, but sometimes.. well.. this happens," Annabeth added, smiling reassuringly.

Lavender's brain was slowly malfunctioning. She had about two million questions: What were they all doing in Vancouver? Where were Piper and Jason? What about the war with Gaia? And, if the book was correct, weren't Percy and Annabeth supposed to be in Tartarus?

It was all too much for her. She fainted.


	2. Chapter 2

When Lavender woke up the plane was in the air. Someone had fastened her seatbelt for her.

She blinked drowsily and stretched, turning to face the person in the seat next to her-

_Oh, yeah. _

It was Percy Jackson. _The_ Percy Jackson. The one that was supposed to be completely and utterly fictional!

Her heart was telling her to go into utter and complete fangirl mode, but logically she decided to keep calm. The supposed-to-be-fictional guy in question was gripping the armrests a little shakily, and Lavender remembered that he could be shot out of the sky at any moment by Zeus, who held a grudge. Annabeth was reading, obviously. It was a book about Greco-Roman architecture, which wasn't surprising.

Lavender tapped Percy on the shoulder. She had quite a few questions.

"Hey, uh, Percy? Would you mind if I asked you a couple questions?" she murmured, a little shy. This guy had saved the world! Why would he ever want to talk to her?

"Oh, no problem!" He grinned. "I'm sure it's a bit disorientating."

Annabeth smiled, not taking her eyes off her book.

"OK, so... well... how were the books even published? Is Rick Riordan a demigod or just a personal friend?"

Percy laughed. "Nah, Rick Riordan is actually just Chiron. He's got a knack for writing. Yeah, we had to go through vigorous interviews to tell him our thoughts over the years. Leo also created this memory machine that showed exact dialogue, which helped a lot. The Muses helped out a bit too, and Apollo. You know."

"Oh," Lavender said. "Wait, but hasn't the real Rick Riordan done interviews and, like, gone on book tours and stuff?"

"Actually, that was a problem. The Hecate kids made a potion that temporarily transforms Chiron into a human- without the wheelchair and everything. It's come in handy!" Percy replied.

"...Right. Um... well... if the books are correct, aren't you.. um... supposed to be in _Tartarus_?"

She whispered that last word, worried that it would make Percy and Annabeth angry. It probably did.

Percy grimaced and his eyes clouded.

"Right, OK, I'll.. um.. avoid that question then..." Lavender muttered, silently cursing herself for being w-a-y too curious. "So, is the war with Gaia over then?"

"Yeah," Percy answered, scratching at his neck. "It was a couple of years ago actually. There were a bunch of losses. But we won, somehow. You'll have to ask someone else about it, 'cause I was unconscious for most of it," he said, mumbling the last bit about him being unconscious. Lavender stifled a laugh.

"So why were you guys in Vancouver, anyway?" she asked, pulling her sketchpad out of her bag while she spoke. She quickly flipped to a clean page, hoping Percy hadn't seen any of her Heroes of Olympus fanart. She also found a pencil buried deep inside her backpack. Hastily, she started to sketch out Percy's face, hiding the paper from view. He looked a lot different than she had imagined. His face was a little rounder, his hair not as floppy. It was actually kinda spiky and unruly. His eyes were much more intense, and a little sad, broody if you could call it that.

"Oh, Frank practically dragged us here to sightsee. Except there isn't really much to see. Trees, rain, public libraries. And hockey. It's actually pretty fun to watch. Brutal, a lot of fighting. I can see why Frank likes it so much!" Percy joked.

"Hey, I heard that!" Frank yelled from the back. He had been chatting with Leo and Hazel. Lavender didn't think they were listening to her and Percy's conversation.

"Yeah, anyway," Percy continued, "We saw some landmarks, watched some Canadian football, some ice hockey, drank _way_ too much Tim Hortons coffee, went to ScienceWorld, which was awesome, destroyed some Lastrygonians we found in Stanley Park, and trashed a couple of public libraries. You know, average demigod sightseeing."

Lavender giggled, and finished her sketch of Percy. It wasn't very good- she couldn't get the left eye right=- but it was much better than most of the stuff she drew.

"But where are Jason and Piper? shouldn't they be with yo-" she stopped when she saw the look on Percy's face. Something was obviously wrong. Maybe they had a fight? Maybe they just didn't want to come? Or worse- what if they died in the war?

_No_, Lavender scolded herself._ I'm not thinking about that now. Not so soon after the ending of Mark of Athena._

She got that particular book out of her bag. She had stopped reading it ater Chapter 51 had ended, and there was still some left. Like, a chapter, but still. It was Leo's POV, which was always funny, but it was actually very grim and sad, of course. Then it ended.

The end. And then a stupid glossary. _Ah well. _

She decided to talk to the other demigods, as an awkward silence had settled over them all. She remembered something hilarious she saw on Tumblr the other day...

"Hey, Leo!" she exclaimed. His gaze flicked to her. "Would you consider yourself a Charmander? Or maybe the Human Torch?"

He started cracking up. His laugh was infectious; pretty soon, Lavender, Frank, and Percy were all laughing like crazy people. Hazel was utterly perplexed. Annabeth was absorbed in her book.

Through chuckles, Leo joked, "Would that make Percy... Squirtle?"

Frank bellowed with laughter. Hazel just looked confused, and Percy turned bright red. "I'd rather think of myself as a Wartortle..."

Lavender grinned. Everyone thought that demigods were always serious and battling all the time but in reality, they were just regular teenagers- just with magic powers.

Leo made another joke about Frank being Beast Boy from Teen Titans while Frank explained modern references to a very confused Hazel.

It was a fun plane ride. Shame it only lasted 5 hours.


	3. Chapter 3

With a loud jolt, the plane landed on the runway at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York City. Percy cursed, but the bad landing wasn't the worst part of the ride. About halfway through, a large patch of turbulence appeared from out of nowhere, and an hour after that, they flew through an unexpected thunderstorm. The demigods were good-natured and joked about it a lot, but they knew they were probably getting on the nerves of Zeus.

"And then I pulled some breath-mints out of my belt!" Leo laughed as he continued a long explanation of why he was not the best person to take on a quest. "Ah, but that's nothing compared to the time I almost blew up New Rome.."

"Yeah, we remember_ that_ one, Leo," Frank said dryly.

Lavender tapped her toe on the ground impatiently, waiting for the seatbelt sign to turn off. _Gods of Olympus, the plane stopped 5 minutes ago, can't you let us out? _she thought, annoyed.

Finally, with a ding, the little sign faded to black. There was a rush of movement as everyone on the flight hastily got up, reaching for luggage stowed up in the overhead cabinets, unbuckling seat-belts and attempting to enter the long line of people slowly filtering out of the plane. Lavender swung her backpack onto her shoulder and got out yet another book, this time it was_ Ingo_ by Helen Dunmore. It was beautifully haunting, and there were mermaids- no, _Mer-_ in it, which was awesome.

Percy glanced at the cover, then laughed. "Reading about _mermaids_ now, are we? _Scared they'll come to life?_"

She glared at him. She did not like to be disturbed while reading!

After escaping the suffocating crowd of people struggling to get out of the plane, the demigods and Lavender finally got into the main area of the airport. They got through security without a hitch- though it was a little annoying to take both of her shoes off (they were Doc Martens, and a huge pain to lace up). They found their luggage carousel, but Lavender had a bit of trouble hauling her suitcase off of the moving conveyor belt.. After a few tries in vain, she decided to give up and let Frank do it. The others had a right good laugh at it, but she was not amused.

Finally, they got out of the airport. The sweet autumn air smelled of leaves and the cold nipped Lavender through her red hoodie. She was used to it in Vancouver, but she thought New York was polluted and humid. She was obviously proved wrong. An **'****_I 3 NYC_****'** t-shirt caught her attention, but it cost, like, $30! There was probably a better-priced one somewhere else.

"Coming with us to Camp Half-Blood?" Leo asked. She almost shook her head, as she apparently had to meet her Aunt Annie, but she didn't really care anymore. She nodded, excited to break the rules for once in her life.

"Should I hail a taxi?" she asked Percy, skeptical. She had heard loads of people say that the cab drivers here were annoying sleaze-bags, and the price to Long Island must be high.

"Nah," he replied. "We've got rides." He then whistled extremely loud. People all the way in Queens could probably hear it!

There was a rustling sound like feathers. Lavender heard a very faint neigh, and stared at the sky in wonder as four winged horses descended from the clouds.

"Pegasi!" she gasped. Three of them were white as snow, one was black and larger than the others, and one- the smallest- was a dark reddish-brown.

Percy ran to meet the one that must have been Blackjack- the large black one. He clambered up with ease, motioning for the others to do the same.

Frank, Leo and Annabeth got onto the white pegasi, and Hazel reluctantly boarded the small chestnut one.

"I wish Arion was here," she sighed.

"Where is he, then?" Lavender asked.

"Oh, he's honeymooning with Scipio. Whatever." Hazel giggled when she saw the horrified look on Lavender's face. The pegasus spread its dappled brown wings as it prepared to take off.

"Hey, but wait, what about me?" Lavender exclaimed, just now realizing there weren't enough pegasi.

"Oh, yeah," Percy muttered. "You can go on Leo's, then."

With a little difficulty, she managed to get settled on the horse's back. With a nicker, the pegasus opened its snowy wings and took to the sky.

It was thrilling. The wind was in her face and her hair streamed out behind her. The pegasus sped up, and she had to grab onto Leo's back to balance. He jumped at her touch, and almost karate-chopped her in the face, but he let it go, rolling his eyes and gripping the pegasus' mane a little harder.

They soared over New York City, circling the Chrysler Building and shooting into the clouds. The thousands of cars looked like ants from up high.

Eventually, the apartment buildings and skyscrapers thinned out as they flew towards Camp Half-Blood. Lavender saw it from afar, as it was bigger than she imagined. Long Island Sound glittered gold as the sun started to set.

Finally they landed just outside of the camp borders. Thalia's pine tree stood tall in front of them. They all slid off their horses' backs and led them to the entrance. Lavender tried to follow them, but she found that there as a sort of invisible barrier in the way. Was this some sort of stupid prank? She had always, always wanted to go to Camp Half-Blood, and got to the entrance, only to find she was blocked?

"Lavender?" Leo called out, looking around. He saw her just as the Mist came for her.

Little tendrils of purplish Mist rose from the ground. They engulfed her, wrapping around her until she couldn't breathe. Screaming, she vainly tried to fight her way out of he Mist's grasp, to no avail.

Suddenly she felt warm. OK, really warm. Hot. _Burning hot._

She was encased in flames. The Mist evaporated and fell off her but the flames persisted. Her whole body felt raw and burning.

The flames died. Lavender collapsed, her shock written on her face as a silent, open scream.

Leo stood there, flames still burning in his hand. He ran to pick Lavender up from the ground, cursing himself. The Mist attacks had gotten much, much worse. He checked her pulse by grabbing her wrist. _Thank the Gods, she's alive_, he thought.

He stumbled into camp, carrying an unconscious demigod and her book-filled backpack.

**A/N : OK, wow that was a weak ending. I thought it was going to be exciting but blargh. I hate Action scenes. **

**A kot of research into NYC went into this.**

**Has anyone here ever read Ingo? And OK I did this in school I was tired and that is why this isn't the best**

**lol peasants bye**


End file.
